Switzerland to hold five days of mourning after 40 killed in resort fire

Swiss investigators are racing to identify the victims of a fire that tore through a crowded bar, killing about 40 people and injuring 115 who were celebrating at a New Year's Eve party in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana, Report informs via The Guardian.

President, Guy Parmelin, has said the country will hold five days of mourning, describing the blaze as one of the most traumatic events in Switzerland's history. "It was a drama of an unknown scale," he said, paying tribute to the many "young lives that were lost and interrupted."

Switzerland owed it to those young people, who had their "projects, hopes and dreams" cut short, to ensure such a tragedy never happened again, said the president.

The fire broke out at 1.30 am (GMT+1) in the town's Le Constellation bar, but it's not yet clear what set off the blaze. Some witnesses said it started after sparklers or flares were put into champagne bottles. Two women told the French broadcaster BFMTV a bartender carried a female member of staff who was holding a burning champagne one of the bottles.

Witnesses said the flames set fire to the ceiling, and within seconds the blaze had spread, engulfing a crowded basement packed with revellers. Many were teenagers. One of the women described a crowd surge as people desperately tried to escape up a narrow flight of stairs.

Swiss police warned it could take days or even weeks to identify everyone who died in the disaster. The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear, and police have not specified how many are still missing.

The canton's chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said significant resources have been deployed "to identify the victims and return their bodies to the families as quickly as possible."

Pilloud said she could not comment on reports that lighted candles had caused the inferno. "An investigation is taking place. It will identify the exact circumstances of what happened," she said, adding that it would look into whether the bar met safety standards and had the required number of exits.

Hundreds gathered in silence in the freezing cold on Thursday evening, laying flowers and lighting candles. Many at the night-time vigil knew people who remain unaccounted for, or were badly injured.